Trier Social Stress Test with a plus
A new modulary protocol for clinical trials
Make your choice among multiple psychological and biological response measures of stress and anxiety under laboratory conditions.
Learn all about the complex anxiolytic response profile of your substance.
We improved the gold standard in Trier, the home of the TSST.
Module I – Autonomic Response Measures
+ blood pressure, epinephrine, norepinephrine
+ electrocardiogram, heart rate variability
+ electrodermal activity, perspiration
+ body temperature
+ pupilography
Module II - Endocrinological Response Measures
+ ACTH, serum and salivary cortisol
+ prolactin, growth hormone, DHEA
Module III – Immunological Response Measures
+ leukocyte subsets
+ cytokines
Module IV – Hematological Response Measures
+ hematocrit , hemoglobin
Module V – Metabolic Response Measures
+ hemoconcentration (hematocrit, hemoglobin, plasma volume)
+ blood coagulation (fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor antigen, D-dimer,
clotting factors)
Module VI – Gene Expression
+ repression, induction profiles of genes in target tissues
Module VII – Psychomotor Response Measures
+ electromyogram
+ voice (spectral analyses)
+ limb movements
+ dexterity
Module VIII – Psychological Response Measures
+ state anxiety
+ mood, anger, fear, helplessness
+ coping
+ memory, attention
The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) has shown to reliably provoke stress and social anxiety under laboratory conditions, accompanied by a robust autonomic and endocrine response. The TSST has further proven a useful paradigm for the detection of anxiolytic properties of drugs. Although the TSST is today considered the “gold standard” in human stress research, the protocol is rather rigid. Thus, we here introduce an extended modulary TSST protocol, the “tsst+”, which allows to specifically adapt this test to given research demands. The different standardized modules now allow to separately assess treatment effects on the following variables: (1) Psychological stress by self-assessment and panel-assessment at relevant time points;(2) psychomotor responses by voice analyses and limb movements; (3) autonomic responses by skin conductance, heart rate, blood pressure, and levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine; (4) endocrine and metabolic responses; (5) immune responses; (6) oxidative stress responses.
Methods and Results: Our poster provides detailed information on all six modules, with new experimental data on voice analyses, psychomotor measures, assessment of psychological stress, electrodermal activity, and oxidative stress. The data show that the tsst+ allows to efficiently provoke significant responses on all these new dimensions, thus considerably extending the spectrum of psychobiological measures of the stress response.
Conclusions: Our presentation illustrates that the tsst+ is a considerably improved protocol to assess social stress and anxiety under laboratory conditions. Its modulary structure allows to adapt the protocol to specific research questions.